Chapter 352

Chapter 352
Chapter 352

The progression of rebirth was a ‘divine law’ that even the deity of all creation refrained from manipulating.

This law stood above the concept of Truth itself, a boundary that remained untouched by any hand. Consequently, no soul could predict the moment or the location where the essence of Greed would eventually find a new vessel.

Yet, Pina had tracked him down.

The individual standing right there.

‘The sole retribution following the Demon of Greed was his passing.’

By their very nature, demonic entities are denied the path of reincarnation.

Their existence is meant to be extinguished entirely the second they perish.

Nevertheless, the Demon of Greed had managed to return to life through the collective grace of the two goddesses.

The complication remained… that the retribution itself was indelible.

It was a destiny that demanded a final end.

He surely encountered the brink of death on countless occasions.

He was fated to have fallen at least once, so if he continued to draw breath, it could only mean one thing.

‘His passing was masked by the sacrifice Pina made.’

Pina must have severed the strings of that retribution by offering her very spirit as the price.

No, claiming she severed it might be a stretch.

She had exchanged the retribution.

Only in that moment did Hypnos grasp the true nature of the massive spirit cradled by the goddesses.

A soul possessing a weight of retribution that rivaled the mortal fate of the Demon of Greed.

That being had perished in his stead, and the man standing here, The End, had inherited his burden.

To contemplate that such a feat was even achievable.

‘Who… who could have possibly mapped this out?’

Every player in this game had been misled.

The gentle-hearted Pina would never have been capable of crafting such a complex scheme.

It was likely that even she lacked a full understanding of the intricacies.

Even the person who drew the blueprints likely couldn’t have predicted the precise conclusion.

That was the source of his fascination.

He wanted to know the tale of the very first time The End had met his demise.

Exactly as Hypnos described, I had experienced death once before.

I was consumed by the ‘Fragment of Ruin’ during my confrontation with Baal.

Following that, I was brought back to life.

“It didn’t happen then. It occurred earlier, back when Pina gave up her soul. That is when you must have fallen. Your true end arrived at that moment.”

…Was he referring to Wilhelm?

The conclusion of the Great Expedition.

I had successfully slain the Demon King, but a glitch in the system resulted in a game over for Wilhelm as the trade-off.

The Demon King had seized Wilhelm’s physical form, yet he had been unable to claim the spirit within.

“Yes! Wilhelm. That massive resolve I glimpsed in the distance belonged to the one known as Wilhelm. That’s it. It likely happened then, when you, The End… when you, Park Hyunmyeong, also met your end.”

“You’re claiming I died back then? That makes no sense.”

Up until that point, everything had been confined to a game.

I had merely witnessed Wilhelm’s passing through a digital display.

“Describe the events of that time to me. I need every detail.”

This was a perspective I had never even dreamed of considering.

So, I recounted the entire sequence of events as they happened.

Listening to me, Hypnos rubbed his jaw thoughtfully.

“…I understand. The Fragment of Ruin held by the Demon King is the closest manifestation to Ruin itself. If that fragment identified the spirit of Greed, then Wilhelm was never the intended victim.”

“It was coming for me?”

“Indeed. The spirit and the vessel of Greed. It craved that specific shell, the one capable of limitless evolution.”

“…But Pina intervened.”

“Precisely. The Goddess of the Sky, Pina, would have done anything to prevent that outcome. However, even she couldn’t stop it entirely.”

“Wilhelm…”

Wilhelm had perished.

Taken out by a glitch spawned by the Fragment of Ruin.

But he was suggesting that the glitch was meant for me, not Wilhelm.

“When Pina interfered with her own life, the Fragment of Ruin shifted its focus to Wilhelm. The standing established by Wilhelm’s physical and spiritual self was nearly equal to that of Greed.”

“Are you telling me he gave his life for mine?”

“…The evidence points that way. But do not be troubled. Wilhelm. His spirit must be aware as well. The fact that his resolve still lingers with you proves he harbors no resentment.”

Wilhelm’s resolve remained a part of me.

Alongside the legacy of the two goddesses.

Even with the knowledge that my existence was the cause of his downfall.

“The real issue is… the Demon King.”

“He likely grew even more powerful after claiming Wilhelm’s form.”

“Yes. And once he secured Wilhelm’s body, he must have initiated his full-scale assault.”

“That sounds right.”

“O The End, you are his target.”

“…The invasion is happening because of me?”

He was implying that the sudden demonic strike on Earth was triggered by my presence.

But looking back, the world shifted entirely after Wilhelm’s fall.

Not specifically because of Wilhelm’s death, but because of me.

“Now that it recognizes the one tied to Wilhelm is actually Greed, there is no way it would remain passive.”

“How could the Demon King know of Greed? Greed was a figure from the era of Ruin. The Demon King shouldn’t have even been around then.”

The Demon King came into being long after the era of Ruin had passed.

His story began after Pangenia had been lifted into the heavens.

Hypnos replied.

“The Demon King is… an offspring of Ruin, albeit a flawed one. Even so, he will seek to validate his existence by dominating the body and soul of Greed. Furthermore, he undoubtedly desires to surpass Ruin itself…”

Hypnos rested his eyes.

The Demon King, having hijacked Wilhelm’s physical shell, would have reached new heights of power.

Considering the resolve Wilhelm left behind, his body must have contained an essence that mirrored Greed’s own.

That localized, endless hunger for strength must have manifested through that body.

Hypnos played back the chain of events in his mind.

He stumbled upon a glaring inconsistency.

“…What was the reason you embarked on the Great Expedition?”

“From the start, the objective of the game was the elimination of the Demon King.”

The software known as Pangenia was built with the premise of defeating the final antagonist, the ‘Demon King’.

The marketing even promised a wish to whoever succeeded in killing him.

But that felt wrong.

“Why was the death of the Demon King necessary? His defeat wouldn’t have brought things to a close.”

Saving Pangenia wasn’t as simple as killing the Demon King.

In the grand scheme, how much damage had the Demon King truly done to Pangenia?

While there were numerous skirmishes linked to the Demon Realm, the Demon King wasn’t actually the primary threat to the land.

…Hearing it put that way, it was undeniably peculiar.

Hypnos went on.

“Is it possible that every path and every result was engineered to funnel toward the Demon King?”

“Are you suggesting that every player was destined to eventually face him?”

“Not every player. It was tailored so that you specifically would reach him.”

It was a setup where he had no choice but to find his way there.

I paused to process this, then spoke up.

What Hypnos was hinting at, in plain terms, was.

“…Are you implying the Demon King is the one who built the system?”

Hidden Trait, Heavenly Being.

It felt as though a heavy mallet had struck the back of my skull.

It was a theory I hadn’t spent a single second contemplating.

The entity known as the Lord of the Demonic,

The solitary monarch who governed the entirety of the Demon Realm.

Had the Demon King actually programmed and launched the game ‘Pangenia’?

Was the game’s goal of ‘killing the Demon King’ just a lure to ensure Greed’s spirit reached his doorstep?

‘The Demon King… was a developer.’

As that thought took hold, I shook my head in disbelief.

Regardless of its origin, ‘Pangenia’ had arrived on Earth in the form of a game.

That meant someone had to translate it into that format and publish it.

Until this moment, I had suspected a completely different figure was behind it.

‘Mint Chocolate Taste.’

I thought he might be the creator and distributor of the game.

He was a constant fixture at the peak of the Hall of Fame, yet he never revealed his true self.

No one knew who he was, yet he was always there.

Because of this, I assumed he was the one who had coded and birthed ‘Pangenia’.

He possessed data that no one else could access and used it to maintain his rank, but even that felt like he was merely verifying the system, as if performing a ‘quality check’.

Essentially, the creator.

But if the true architect was the Demon King.

“Then who is the Bluebird?”

The Bluebird.

An entity I had only recently discovered via Isabella.

I had assumed the Bluebird was the mastermind.

Mainly because he appeared to understand the core mechanics of the game.

My theory was that he built the framework of Pangenia and passed it to Mint Chocolate Taste.

But Hypnos was suggesting I was off the mark.

Hypnos tilted his head in confusion.

“The ‘Bluebird’?”

“He identifies as an admin. He forged pacts with the citizens of Pangenia so that gamers would inhabit them at the brink of death.”

“…The more you tell me, the more this ‘game’ sounds like the ‘Dreamworld’ I constructed.”

Dreamworld.

Deep within the World Tree, Hypnos had forged a realm of illusions.

Through it, he had lulled all the dark deities into a perpetual slumber to make them forget.

And yet, he was comparing the game ‘Pangenia’ to his Dreamworld.

“In what way?”

“Dreams take many forms. There are lucid dreams, unconscious ones, dreams of being a fictional entity, or dreams that bleed into the waking world…”

“But it isn’t a dream.”

“Correct. It is tangible reality. Or rather, a dream that was forced into reality. O The End. Do you understand why I built the ‘Dreamworld’ inside the World Tree and claimed it as my domain?”

“I don’t.”

“It is because of the ‘Golden Rule’.”

“…!”

Suddenly, the pieces started to click.

Players would trigger their awakenings and evolutions through the Fragment of Broken Golden Rule.

I was no exception.

Massive amounts of Golden Rule fragments were drained every time I took on the form of Randolph.

It was an undeniable presence.

And the underlying force that allowed it to exist was, ultimately, the Golden Rule.

“The Golden Rule acts as a potent bridge that turns dreams into physical reality. The reason such diverse life could emerge in the ancient world, despite only the World Tree existing, was entirely due to the Golden Rule.”

The capability to manifest imagination into the world.

To think the Golden Rule was the catalyst for the birth of species.

If that was the case, the Golden Rule itself was effectively the power of ‘creation’.

Hypnos continued.

“And as you’ve seen during your climb, my domain inside the World Tree has become both a fantasy and a reality. That ‘game’ operates on the same principle. However, something is off.”

“What’s off?”

“In Pangenia, vessels are constructed through pacts, while on Earth, controllers are established via the game. In between, there seem to be various ‘operators’ managing specific duties. If that’s the case… I’m starting to suspect that the Demon King might not be the true architect in the absolute sense either.”

The architect.

The maker.

The administrator.

Perhaps they had observed the ‘Dreamworld’ Hypnos created and used it as the blueprint for ‘Pangenia’.

At the same time, I felt a surge of genuine curiosity.

“They must be working toward a final objective, right?”

“Yes. Their individual goals likely vary… but the fact that they are all performing their roles means the final image they are painting is likely the same. It’s just a competition to see who claims the finished canvas.”

They were moving independently for their own reasons.

Yet, they stayed true to their functions.

All of them were racing toward the completion of the project.

But it remained a mystery who would apply the final brushstroke and own the result.

I rubbed my chin.

Whatever they were chasing.

Hypnos whispered to himself.

“To link two distinct worlds, a staggering amount of the Golden Rule must have been spent, but where could they have sourced it… They provide the vessels in Pangenia and pull the souls from Earth… What they stand to gain from all this chaos is, wait. Don’t tell me…!”

His expression turned incredibly grave.

I felt like I was beginning to see it too.

The vision they were pursuing.

In the end, it was.

“The ‘heavens’?”

As the words left my mouth.

Hypnos gave a slow, heavy nod.

“…That’s it. They are attempting to manufacture a key to break into the ‘heavens’. Wait… Ah! It makes sense now. The Demon King was trying to turn himself into the key! If the Demon of Greed had somehow scarred Ruin and claimed the right to ascend…!”

Hypnos’s frame began to shake.

The Demon King’s plan was to become the boss that would serve as the key to the celestial realm.

But his plan had failed.

It failed because he couldn’t capture me—the spirit and the body of Greed.

However, one detail was gnawing at me.

“…Hidden Trait, Heavenly Being.”

“Yes, that is the key. But… no, hold on.”

“I possess it.”

“…!!!”

Hypnos’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.

I was just as stunned.

To realize that the Hidden Trait ‘Heavenly Being’ was actually the tool intended to unlock the heavens.

Of course, there was probably even more to it than that.

*Gulp!*

“There is a massive chance the Demon King knows that you, The End, hold the ‘key’. The other players are likely still working to create one, so they might be in the dark… That explains why the Demon King is so obsessed with invading Earth!”

The Demon King, who carried the legacy of Ruin.

He was the only one who knew the truth.

That the soul within the Demon of Greed was the literal key to the heavens.

It meant his interest wasn’t just in Greed’s potential for power.

…The reason the Demon King had launched his campaign against Earth was to hunt me down.

Why was the Demon King attacking?

I had finally found the missing piece to that puzzle.

“Hypnos. Do you know anything specific about the ‘heavens’?”

The term had surfaced time and time again, but the actual details of the place remained a mystery to me.

He fell silent for a moment.

Then, Hypnos spoke with great care.

As if even uttering the words required immense caution.

“That place is… the paradise of the gods. The center that dictates the rise and fall of every universe. The seat of the absolute deity, who holds the power to create or erase worlds.”

“…An absolute deity.”

“But even if you force a key into existence, you can only use it if there is a ‘gate’. Unless a portal to the heavens just drops out of the sky…”

Right then.

*Shweeeing!*

The atmosphere began to tear open.

“What?”

Hypnos’s eyes snapped toward the disturbance.

Something that should have been physically impossible was occurring.

No one was supposed to be able to force their way into the World Tree’s Dungeon, the Dreamworld.

A second later, the rift expanded, and.

-Kyakakakakaka!

…Hell had arrived.

And the moment Hypnos saw Hell.

“The-the Sentinel of the ‘Gate’…!”

He let out a scream of pure terror.

Watching his panic, I tilted my head.

“The Sentinel of the Gate?”

“Why is the protector of the celestial gate standing here?”

“I mean, he’s my pet.”

“…?”

“Hell. Where have you been? Why are you just showing up now?”